Chapter 35:

Nero stood beside Ichigo. He also wore his own combat suit which consisted of a black tight fitting full body suit made of a synthetic metal polymar.

It had metal plates to cover the chest, stomach, neck groin and other vunrable areas of the body.

He carried with him a souped up FN SCAR that shot bullets with 5 times it's original muzzle velocity and carried more than 500 bullets in one cartridge.(A/NDon't know if this works to clear up just how souped up it is.)

Unlike Ichigo's gun which had modified Bullets. Nero prefered his gun to be as basic and close to the original as possible. The weapon was ashy grey in color and had a cross sight attachment.

Besides his primary weapon. He carried Revy's iconic dual modified Beretta 92Fs Inox. They were physically close to the original as possible but were 4 times more destructive and awesome as Revy's.( I'm assuming based on Revy's gun fight with Roberta. Her guns aren't normal not at all.)

Nero had watched the anime and gained respect for the foul mouthed freelancer's skills and weaponry. A pistol that could deform metal shipping containers like that wss impossible back on earth so her guns were quite amazing.

Nero had recreated exact replicas and modified them even futher to go past what a normal human could handle. Both his weapons had enough recoil to blow off a trained soldier's arm from his shoulder. More so for the FN SCAR, a normal man would be lucky to only lose an arm.

He also carried a specially crafted Katana sword, it was 90 cm in length and was sheathed in a red scabbard on his back.

Besides that he carried a belt containing grenades, extra ammo,stims, flashbangs and rations. He couod create everything else on the fly with the help of his nanites.

Checking himself Nero smiled mockingly, he couldn't believe he missed this. As a kid he used to hate all the bloodshed, gun shots, the smell of blood, dirt, gunpowder ,sweat and rotting corpses. He used to passionatly dispise bis proffession. So much so he vowed to rise and thrive, gain all the money, power, women and experience every joy life had to offer.

But over these 20 years the sad truth had hit him. With all the money and power he had gained, the endless possibilities became a cage. He enjoyef something for onlh a few years before it became monotonous, all the sex, alcohol, respect and fear he had experienced living as Ryū was monotonous. No woman could make his heart beat as fast as it did when he was in battle, everything was certain and predictable unlike battle which could change under the smallest of influences.

Nero had realized that he simply sold himself a lie. His heart wasn't moved by money, women or political power anymore. He had owned a continent but gave it all away for this reason, to return to doing what he loved most. This time under his own terms and according to his whims. And if some higher power was using him for its amusement, he would put a bullet through their skull or a higher being's equivalent of a skull.

Nero's smirk widened at the thought, becoming some herald of war, or making people wholeheartedly believe he was the embodiment of war snd violance. Maybe even create a few cults for shits and giggles along the way.

"Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem. (I prefer dangerous liberty to peaceful slavery.)" Nero recited with a wide crazed smile. This was a latin phrase that was chanted to him during his training in his childhood. Now he realized that the camp had truly liberated him from the shackles of illusions of peace without slavery.

Nero's heart drumed within his chest so fast and so intensly his eyes became bloodshot at all the excess oxygen and blood. He muscles clenched and relaxed in anticipation and his breath stilled for a second.

"Awoooo!!!"He just couldn't wait anymore, he used cybermind to hack the plane's AI and opened the hatch doors. He excitedly ran down the ramp and jumped into the open night skies with a cheeful and wolfish howl.

Ichigo's eyes widened in surprise, but she followed soon after. She ran after Nero with an anticipating grin.

Ayaka stared at the empty skies in a few seconds of shock, she sighed in frustration at the duo's eccentric behaviour and jumped after them.

Out of the duo she was the most seemingly under equiped. She wore a simple adaptive clothing prototype full body suit, since she was essentially a living breathing weapon of mass destruction with years of training and enhanced nature charka absorbing cells she didn't feel the need to carry weapons.She had a few enhancements like occular hud, Inferno issued guns and stims in a storage seal on her palm.

The wind blew resistance blew against Nero's rapidly descending body like a refreshing breeze causing him to smile even more.

Behind him was Ichigo who was also expertly manuvaring herself into terminal velocity in the sky. Ayaka followed behind Ichigo, her face was green and tears threatened to leave her eyes as she womdered just what she was doing after these two maniacs. She would've been perfectly fine staying at home. She was Nero's body guard in name but the man in question could battle her to a stand still, she didn't see the need to be here.

The trio would land on a small island where a battle was set to take place in a day. From their intel, Kumogakure's forces that numbered in the 3000 would be intercepting 800 of Kirigakure's scout forces that planned to move across the water and lay siege on the land of lightning.

A force consisting of Kumo's ninja and samurai commissioned by the Raikage. The plan was to quickly finish off Kirigakure's scouts and set up a camp on one of the islands, and the mission would be carried out by Ay himself along with 400 capable jounin, 600 chunin 1200 genin and the rest were hired samurai. Ever since the smaller villages allied and provided support to each other, the bigger villages could no longer walk over them and hold large scale battles in the small villages.

So like Kirigakure, Kumo moved it's focus from the land of fire and focused on assaulting Iwagakure and Kirigakure. The former because it had already spread its manpower thin trying to invade the land of fire, the attack had failed and their battles had shifted to Amegakure, it was the only village not part of the allaince afterall due to Hazo's mistrust and arrogance in beleiveing he could single handedly protect Ame. Kumo also attacked Kirigakure simply because they dared to mount an attack first. They planned to take over one of the islands part of Kiri's territory, set up camp and wait for reinforcements to arrive. With a force of 3000, a jinchuriki, an S-rank ninja and more than a 100 A-rank to B rank ninja they could hold out long enough for Kumogakure to send a larger force and supplies. Which was about 2 weeks.

Although Kumo outnumbered Kirigakure's forces, the battle could still go either way. First of all, Kumo was fighting on foreign ground. Kirigaure were also focused sorley on defense and had time to set up ahead.

But Kumo's forces were also up against a force that was clearly ill equipped to deal with an invading force of such a number and quality since their role had at first been to infiltrate Kumo, now they had to retrear and buy time for Kiri's main forces to arrive which according to their estimates would take a day or two.

Nevermind that they were led by one of the seven ninja swordsmen. Ay was more than enough to keep her busy and then with a good strategy his forces would overun any defence they try to mount.

From there they could launch an attack against Kiri once they recieved more reinforcements and supplies.

....

Anothet chap, remember to drop the power stones off here, it means my work is actually worth all the effort. I hope you're also liking the direction I'm taking with this whole war.